'Kinds of Kindness' is Kind of Boring
A swing and a miss. Yorgos Lanthimos is an unpredictable director. For those who know his work, they're aware of how bonkers they can be. Most of the time Lanthimos' strange style works in his films. Recently, it worked beautifully with Poor Things. Maybe that's because, despite all its oddities, Poor Things is a film with a clear set of themes. It's a film about sexual freedom, being an independent person, and the absurdity of polite society. Kinds of Kindness is striving for some sort of message, but it's not clear what that message is other than "people are flawed a*****s who yearn for freedom and happiness." Or is it an exercise in how we display kindness to each other? It's probably that one, based on the film's title, but it's dull in its delivery.
Strange movies can be fun. David Lynch's entire filmography is flooded with odd content. David Lynch, like Yorgo Lanthimos, can be hit or miss. Either Lynch is hitting a home run with Mulholland Drive or being weird for the sake of being weird with Inland Empire. Lanthimos has some mixed work. He could make a masterful comedy like The Lobster or a boring dud like Kinds of Kindness, a film that aims to weird out the audience for the sake of being weird. I know there's substance to be had, but it gets lost in the film's jumbled plotlines.
Kinds of Kindness doesn't follow a traditional narrative. Instead, it's more like a collection of scenes that ultimately lead nowhere. The movie is broken into two acts. When each act wraps, credits are overlayed on the screen with the cast members' names. It's a bit like the middle-act gag in Adam McKay's Vice, where they just roll the credits midway through the film. Each fable in the film hints at the idea of free will.
In the first act, we follow Robert Fletcher (Jesse Plemons). He is an everyday man who's controlled by his demanding boss, Raymond (Willem Dafoe). Raymond not only bosses Robert around but also controls every aspect of his life. He even asks Robert if he's having sex regularly with his wife. Raymond is the embodiment of the American workforce. Brutal, unforgiving, and cruel.
Ray and Bob's relationship encapsulates what it's like to be an American. Our jobs control our lives to the point where we can't ever see our family. As horrible as it is, it's nothing worse than doing your boss wrong. You screw up on them, and they will terminate you with no hesitation. So, what else can we do other than be a slave to our masters? In return, we get a pretty penny, but is it worth all the sacrifice?
One day, Raymond asks Robert to do a dangerous task that puts Robert's life in danger. Robert does so the first time but fails. So he's ordered to do it again a second time. This time, without any screwups. But Robert refuses. How this plot wraps up is pretty hilarious. It goes for a shock gag and delivers it masterfully.
The film has two other acts in which each of the three main cast members plays different roles. If not for the end credit gag, it would be impossible to track all these stories. This is mostly because, unlike most of Yorgos Lanthimos' films, there's not much that's memorable. There's only one gag that had me laughing and another moment I didn't care for, where Emma Stone slashes a poor puppy's leg. I just can't stand watching cruelty to animals.
I think I've grown out of Lanthimos' shock value. After seeing masterworks like The Lobster and Poor Things, I'm dissapointed in this film. I didn't tell you about the other two acts in the film as I don't want to spoil them. But it gets weird, but not weird, to the point where I'm uncomfortable, just tired of Lanthimos' usual bag of tricks, which often features slapsticky violence or graphic nudity. More than anything, Kinds of Kindness is one of those films that feels more like a director playing their greatest hits stylistically instead of doing anything new. There's potential in this film, but it gets bogged down by its own set of multiple subplots that have varying levels of interest. The film is trying to say something about free will. Going back to the first plot, Raymond is dictating every aspect of Robert's life. He has no free will, only the abuse of his boss to live by.
Most of this film strives to convey a message about how we treat people, and it's not through kindness. It's apathy. Yorgos Lanthimos' cynical outlook on the world makes its message about humanity being cruel, suicidal, and untrustworthy clear. However, Kinds of Kindness is a comedy that overstays its welcome. At close to three hours, the film had me more bored than fascinated. Kinds of Kindness is a messy, overlong narrative that fails as an experimental film.
